A rescue vehicle drives through a neighborhood off Cypress Creek as floodwaters rise after Hurricane Harvey hit. "Our family was spared," Lisa Alexander said. "But it was really hit and miss (in Cypress)."

A rescue vehicle drives through a neighborhood off Cypress Creek as floodwaters rise after Hurricane Harvey hit. "Our family was spared," Lisa Alexander said. "But it was really hit and miss (in Cypress)."

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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Due to the flood waters of Harvey, Alice Riley, resident of Canyon Village at Cypress Springs, lost most of the items in her home. Home items and furniture are stacked alongside the curb of Rileyâs home, the items are now trash. less

Due to the flood waters of Harvey, Alice Riley, resident of Canyon Village at Cypress Springs, lost most of the items in her home. Home items and furniture are stacked alongside the curb of Rileyâs home, ... more

Harvey turns Cypress couple into documentarians

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On Sept. 3, a week after Hurricane Harvey slammed into Houston, Lisa N. Alexander and her husband, Elgin, were recording a speaker at their church, Trinity Vineyard in Cypress. The guest was part of the Vineyard Mercy Response team, affiliated with the Vineyard Church in New Orleans, which rolls into disaster-struck areas to help with recovery.

The Alexanders run a Cypress marketing and branding agency, PrettyWork Creative, so they intended to craft a short promotional clip that Mercy Response could use in its fundraising efforts. But the Alexanders were so blown away by what they heard and by what the Mercy Response volunteers were doing, they decided then and there to turn the video into a full-blown documentary.

The resulting "What Mercy Looks Like," which will be shown at a free screening Wednesday at Trinity Vineyard Church and then become available on vimeo.com, is an hour-long look at how one group helped salvage the spirit of a city still reeling from the tumult of Harvey.

"All the people that came together, drove from New Orleans to help set up their base camp, and we'd never seen anything like this," Lisa Alexander said during a phone interview. "There's one particular story of one volunteer who lived in Florida. He was in (Hurricane) Irma's path, but when he got the all-clear that he could leave, he was in a pickup truck and headed to Houston. It was things like that we wanted to share.

More Information

'What Mercy Looks Like'

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Trinity Vineyard Church, 17150 Spring Cypress Rd.

Cypress

Information: Free, but a donation to Vineyard Mercy Response is requested

"The heart of the people, it was so touching," she continued. "It really is about the volunteers. These volunteers are superheroes, and their superpowers are that they tear out dry wall and help bring comfort to people. I think the number that they gave (was) that particular organization was responsible for gutting over 300 homes."

Fortunately, the Alexanders didn't personally suffer much damage from Harvey, so they could spend a sizable portion of their time in the storm's aftermath on this project. "Our family was spared," Lisa Alexander said. "But it was really hit and miss (in Cypress). Some people flooded, and some didn't."

The tangle of flooded or impassable roads didn't help.

"It was kind of scary, getting out on the road where you didn't know what you were going to encounter," she said. "But by the time we started filming, roads had kind of cleared. I think the Beltway was still under water, so you really had to be careful how you traversed the city."

Now that the Mercy Response volunteers have packed up and gone home, it's back to business as usual for the Alexanders - almost. Making "What Mercy Looks Like" may lead to chances to make more documentaries.

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